Players (comedy)

The comedy was first published in the publication “Works of Nikolai Gogol”, 1842 , volume four, in the section “Dramatic Excerpts and Selected Scenes”. The whole section was dated by Gogol himself from the period from 1832 to 1837. The final processing of the “Players” dates back to 1842 , but the play began definitely earlier.

Sending it to Prokopovich , Gogol wrote on August 29, 1842 from Germany :

The play “Players”, now being sent, has gathered to the force. The draft sheets were written this way for a long time and illegible, that they gave me a terrible job to disassemble

This initial manuscript of The Players, N. S. Tikhonravov, related to the period of Petersburg life of Gogol before 1836 .

The action takes place during one day in a tavern of a provincial city. Ikharev, a card player and sharper , recently won eighty thousand, is settled in the tavern. Three buddy sharpeners who also live in a tavern and have long dreamed of beating someone for a large sum will learn about it: Shvohnev, Krugel and Comforting. They get acquainted with Ikharev and admit to him that they themselves are the same sharper as he is and offer him to join their company. Iharev happily agrees.

Meanwhile, three friends tell Iharev that the landowner Glow lives in the tavern, who laid down his estate because of his daughter's wedding and is about to receive two hundred thousand for it. They invite Glova to their place and question him, but he reports that he is leaving home, and leaves his son Alexander to wait for the money. After the departure of Glow Senior, the company invites Alexander, who dreams of becoming a hussar , and convinces him that the real hussar should be a gambler. Glow Jr. loses the company two hundred thousand and leaves them a bill for the money.

Later the official Zamukhryshkin comes to the tavern searching for Glova. He says that the money will be available no earlier than in two weeks. When the official leaves, Consolation pretends to run after him in order to offer him a bribe for the prompt consideration of the case. Then Shvokhnev, Krugel and Ucheshitelny tell Ikharev that they urgently need to go to Nizhny Novgorod , where, according to their information, people just come with money to beat. They offer Ikharev, who is not in a hurry, to give them eighty thousand, taking in return a bill from Glov for two hundred thousand. Ikharev agrees and enjoys his enrichment. Suddenly, Glow Jr. appears, who reports that neither he, nor Glow Sr., nor Zamukhryshkin were those whom they pretended to be, but were frontmen hired by the trio. Meanwhile, having deceived all, three cheats leave the city. Ikharev utters an outraged speech that there are only rogues and crooks around.

• Iharev
• Petr Petrovich Shvokhnev
• Colonel Krugel
• Stepan Ivanovich Consolation
• Mikhail Alexandrovich Glow , fake landowner
• Alexander Mihaly Glov , the fake son of Glova
• Psoy Stakhich Zamukhryshkin , front officer from the order
• Gavryushka , servant of Ikharev
• Alexey , tavern servant

First production

• February 5, 1843 - Maly Theater , starring M. S. Schepkin (Consolation), P. M. Sadovsky (Zamukhryshkin)
• April 26, 1843 - Alexandrinsky Theater, starring A.E. Martynov (Ikharev), N.V. Samoilov (Shvohnev), I.I. Sosnitsky (Consolation)

Stages

• 1992 - “Gamblers”, Theater “Trisekl”, London , dir. Dalia Ibelgauptayte. Cast: O. Menshikov ( Ikharev ) and others. - Press
• 1992 - “ Players-XXI ”, Moscow Art Theater. A.P. Chekhov , dir. Sergey Yursky .
• 2001 - Theatrical Association 814 , directed by Oleg Menshikov . Cast: O. Menshikov ( Consolation ), V. Sukhorukov ( Glow Sr., and others. - Press
• 2001 - Novosibirsk Academic Youth Theater “Globus” , director A. Galibin
• 2005 - Academic Russian Drama Theater named after George Konstantinov , director D. Repyov
• 2005 - Novokuznetsk Drama Theater
• 2007 - Studio of Theater Art , Moscow , dir. Sergey Zhenovach - press
• 2007 - Moscow Theater “Near the Stanislavsky House” , Alexey Levinsky - press
• 2007 - St. Petersburg Academic Comedy Theater named after N. P. Akimov , director Tatiana Kazakova
• 2009 - Kazan State Theater of Young Spectators , dir. Vladimir Chigishev
• 2012 - Kharkiv Drama Theater "T" , dir. Svetlana Bunziak . Cast: D. Obednikov .
• 2013 - Voronezh Chamber Theater , dir. Mikhail Bychkov .
• 2015 - “IGQKI”, a project by Alexander Kuznetsov, Theater Center for the RF STD “On Passionate”
• 2017 - Sevastopol Drama Theater named after B.A.Lavrenyov
• 2018 - #IGROKI Dnepropetrovsk Academic Youth Theater dir. Pavel Gatilov

• 1951 - Players ( fr. Les Joueurs ) - French movie Claude Barma with Louis de Funes as Shvohnev
• 1978 - Players - Roman Viktyuk TV movie. Cast: Alexander Kalyagin ( Ikharev ), Valentin Gaft ( Consolation ), Leonid Markov ( Shvohnev ), Alexander Lazarev ( Krugel ), Vladimir Kashpur ( Alexey ), Boris Ivanov ( Glow Sr. ), Vyacheslav Zakharov ( Glow Jr. ), Boris Dyachenko ( Gavryushka ), Nikolai Pastukhov ( Zamukhryshkin ), Margarita Terekhova ( Adelaida Ivanovna )
• 1992 - “ Players XXI ”, a TV version of the performance by Sergey Yursky .
• 2005 - “Players”, on-screen version of the performance by Oleg Menshikov . Director - Peter Shepotinnik , cameraman - Denis Alarcon
• 2007 - “ Russian Game ”, a film by Pavel Chukhrai , based on the play by N. V. Gogol

Composer Dmitry Shostakovich in 1941 and 1942 . worked on the opera of the same name by Gogol. Shostakovich left the opera unfinished, but subsequently the composer and future biographer of Shostakovich Krzysztof Meyer completed it.

• Paderina E. G. To the creative history of the “Players” of Gogol. - M .: IMLI RAN, 2009. - 448 p. - ISBN 978-5-9208-0313-9 .